> "but if your plan is absolutely dependant on VC, maybe something is wrong." This seems wrongheaded and a bit presumptuous. There are no shortage of startups

> "but if your plan is absolutely dependant on VC, maybe something is wrong." This seems wrongheaded and a bit presumptuous. There are no shortage of startups with no realistic business plan - there are also startups with a business model that requires substantial initial capital. Silicon Valley is built on high-risk, high-reward, high-capital companies - there's a reason why "lifestyle business" (lower-risk, lower-reward, lower-capital) is a dirty word there. It seems like you're swinging the pendulum all the way to the other end where we start making fun of people who take VC money. I've been part of companies that are fully owned and never took VC money to get off the ground. They do reasonably well, but they are also pretty strictly limited to ideas with very low capital requirements.